GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY PRIORITIES - A COST-EFFECTIVENESS INDEX FOR INVESTMENTS

Biodiversity investment priorities are a major concern for funding age ncies and parties to the Convention on Biodiversity, We present an ind ex to rank global investments which builds on previous methods by incl uding cost-effectiveness criteria and considering the nature of threat and success in relation to priority nations. The cost-effective prior ity investment index (CEPII) is used to determine regional rankings fo r countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Sub-Saharan Africa and Central and South America and the Caribbean. Data limitations necessitate cau tion in the interpretation of priorities which, like other methods, ar e defined by subjective choice of success and threat surrogates. The i ndex does, however, appear to have merit as a policy tool. Copyright ( C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd